The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Price: $45.38
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.59493
EAN: 9780867199031
Edition: illustrated edition
ISBN: 0867199032
Label: Last Gasp
Manufacturer: Last Gasp
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 120
Publication Date: 2003-04
Publisher: Last Gasp
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Last Gasp
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Editorial Review:Product Description:A fascimile of the tale as it originally appeared.
Average Rating:
Rating:
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I am a lifelong fan of Tintin and just added this to my collection. Surprisingly, it is all black and white but is still charming.
Rating:
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The first Tintin story as it was published by Hergé (Georges Remi - his pen name comes from his initials, G.R. - inverted to be R.G., whereby the letters are pronounced as "air" "gay" in French - Her-gé) from when he was 21 years old. While his Tintin books have been described as having "vivid humanism, a realistic feel produced by meticulous and wide ranging research", none of this was yet evident in 1930 when he wrote "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", the only Tintin book to be reprinted in its original black and white artwork (the first ten books had also come out in black and white, but books two to nine were redrawn and coloured by Hergé from 1943-1955, with some newly rewritten/edited pages being added as late as 1975... "The Shooting Star" was even redrawn twice; "Meticulous and wide-ranging research" would only really come into the picture in 1934, when he worked on "The Blue Lotus" after long discussions with a Chinese friend).
In "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" we get our first look at our hero, who is misshaped and friendless, traveling through a hostile Germany into the Soviet Union. On the way his train gets blown up (of course he survives this brutal assassination attempt, as well as a similar incident happens at the end of the book as well), and his car is smashed at a train crossing (he hitches a ride on the train). He is followed by assassins, corrupt officials, mean Soviets, disguised agents, spies and saboteurs, out-foxing them at every turn and usually giving them a good thrashing (or just scaring them out of their wits by covering himself with a sheet - this is very much a silly children's book). He's inventive as well - falling off a train doesn't keep him in one place for long when he builds a cart to help him jet along the tracks (he's not always MacGuyver - another time he takes a car apart but puts it back together with several parts left over). He exposes fake Soviets who busy themselves with activities like trying to impress foreigners with their Potemkin economy or simply running bogus elections. From a Tintinologist's point of view, the book is remarkable for one thing - while Tintin is supposedly a reporter, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets carries the only episode in the entire Tintin library where we ever see him actually writing anything (see p. 38), although he refers to his art in Tintin in the Congo as well. There are corny jokes aplenty, bizarre underwater escapes, episodes of torturing Chinese torturers, and one strange episode where Tintin is impressed into the army; don't know how he could have been confused with a young Russian, but he quickly uses the episode as an opportunity to sabotage a raid on a cossack farm.
There's plenty of sadism in the book: Tintin is executed (the guns had blanks), frozen stiff (twice), rolled down a hill in a snowball (reminiscent of what happened to Haddock in Prisoners of the Sun), he fights a bear and a tiger, exposes a corrupt soviet hideaway, survives a plane crash and carves a new propellor from a mighty log using a pen knife. It's a nutty, episodic adventure that has no character development or charm, it's based on completely fantastical situations and there's no plot at all. An interesting little story that shows how far Hergé brought Tintin over a full 45 years of publishing.
Rating:
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I hated yet another tintin. This book was terrible and I wish never to see the likes of it again. PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS BOOK IT IS TERRIBLE. DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
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"Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" was Belgian artist and storyteller Herge's first adventure for his cartoon hero Tintin, published in 1929. In the story, Tintin, a young Belgian reporter, is dispatched by his newspaper editor to document the goings-on in a new and chaotic Soviet Union. Accompanied by his faithful fox terrier Snowy, Tintin finds the shattered country under the thumb of a collection of murderous Communist secret police thugs. Forced to go on the run, Tintin and Snowy survive one death-defying situation after another before finally escaping.
"Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" is drawn in black and white and much longer than the standard adventures that came later. The artwork is rather primitive; the storyline is a series of cliff-hangers mingled with fierce satire of the then-Soviet Union, and lacks the meticulous plots of later adventures. Snowy plays a prominent role as commentator and rescuer of Tintin. Tintin himself is an unfinished character, although the resourcefullness and bravery of the mature Tintin are already apparent.
Perhaps alone among the Tintin adventures, Herge never went back to update the artwork and story. Michael Farr, author of "Tintin: The Complete Companion", suggests Herge was embarrassed by the quality of this first effort. Nevertheless, "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" is highly recommended to diehard Tintin fans of all ages, who will find this first adventure an interesting introduction to the early Tintin.
Rating:
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We like Tintin and this is one of the first if not the first Tintin comic. In this one Snowy is more intelligent than Tintin. It always amuses us.
Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.
